44 SeCOND OF JANUARY , ,w,..., .w.""""""ttw.';}t' "',',',...,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,.,,,w .w,,, . ""ti",',',"",",,',' :'S. S OMETIME, Josiah Noble said to himself, it would be interesting to compile a list of all the cat as- *12 trophes that had started on, or because tq of, Christmas. This notion occurred to him the day after New Year's, while he was standing on the kitchen stepladder ><f taking down the Christmas-tree dec- orations. He was alone in the house. His wife had gone to a meeting of the local air-raid wardens, and he had no idea where his three children were. On the floor around him were piles of card- board boxes waiting to receive the tree Qrnaments, and from his slight point of elevation he could see the events of the last ten days, the slow descent from the excitement and warmth of Christ- egg-beater from the kitchen and played with that instead. It was a signal, apparently. From one overfed person after another the truth began to come out. Louise wore a thirty- eight instead of a thirty-six. The smoke- colored corduroy jacket she had seemed to be so pleased about would have to be taken back to Altman's and exchanged for a larger size. Or-she had actually suggested this, his own daughter-soine nylon stockings, which she needed at the moment more than she needed a cordu- roy jacket. All through the month of December, Mr. Noble's older son, George, had talked of nothing but Baffin Land, where he was going to go and eat raw fish and be happy. But when he had leafed through the rather expensive book of drawings and photographs his father had found for him, it turned out that George had changed his mind. He was not much interested in Eskimos now; aviation was what really inter- ested him. For Mr. Noble, Christmas was and always had been a failure, with the pos- sible exception of one spent at sea among strangers. He removed the lid from a small cardboard box and began system- atically to strip the tree of its red and blue and silver balls, putting each one in its compartment, taking out the little hook that you fasten the ball to the tree with. As soon as a box was filled, he packed it away in an enormous carton. While he was unwinding the strings of tinsel he heard a car drive in to the garage. His wife came in through the kitchen and he could follow her progress by the sounds. First she dumped the sack of groceries on the kitchen table, then she pulled off her galoshes and threw them under the sink. Finally she appeared in the living room, her fur coat hanging open and a broad white band on her left sleeve. She had brought the mail in also. She stood still in the middle of the floor, listening. Then she went over and looked at the thermostat beside the French doors that led into the dining room. 'fIt's only sixty in here," she said, and put the mail on the desk. When Mr. Noble came downstairs the first thing in the morning, he in vari- ably moved the thermostat up from fifty-five, where he had set it the night before, to seventy. It stayed there al] day until the last member of the famil) was ready to go to bed. If the furnace wasn't running now, it could only be ;""",1,, f' . I ').,:t:'/ f , ,'.. , " ,J4.. ... ' ,:, .:'.:,: : :' ':': ':= ,\.. ".'::::: ...:--:: ' : \ : ,"; ?' ::": %f m<- {Q'>>' , , . t';": / ...i " : Y '; I 'Y :............. ...0,.;," ." .... .... ..... '<<- ..... ' .., mas. The high point had come on Christ- mas Eve, when they were singing carols on the village green. Fifty or sixty very ordinary people-the druggist, the vil- lage carpenter, the librarian, the station- master, the commuters who lived on Õ! Nod Hill. But with flashlights and lighted candles in their hands and the Christmas tree shining on their faces, they did not seem ordinary. Not in the least. Children and grown ups looked on the same carol books. The snow fell quietly out of the night sky and people smiled into each other's faces and sang without reserve. They sang "0 Come, AlJ Ye Faithful" and "Silent Night" and "0 Little Town of Bethlehem" and "Good King Wenceslas" and "The First Noel." After they had sung almost all the songs in the book, they went and stood outside the house of a boy who had infan tile paralysis, and they sang the same songs over again just for him. The boy's mother came out with a big bowl of red apples. Watching her go from one person to another, Mr. Noble found that he loved nearly everybody in the village. He wanted them to stay so that he could talk to them a little, so that they could talk to each other. But there was no holding such a moment, heart-satisfy- ing though it was. People got in their cars and drove away. On Christmas morning, Mr. Noble saw the pleasure fade out of his wife's face even as she was unwrapping her presents. Whatever was it that she had been expecting? Perhaps only to be sur- prised. Anyway, it was not there. By afternoon, Jeffrey, hIS younger son, was tired of the streamlined electric train they had gone all the way into New York to pick out for him. He got the ::'::::: .,., :; ; Jt;i:, Æ : : ::" . , ,-;Ç " -::::t: ::: ::: :.-,.,','.',....,'. ,,:: ;: ; ! ..::::" ',",".;.;.::--:::., :: : : --' ':-:'. .,' t::::; ,. ".' ;:,-::,:";';'.' ,ti : i: ' - NEPTUNE HALL and GUEST HOUSES on the ocean front All types of sports... fishing, hunt- ing, golf, etc. Plain and fancy loafing. Luscious food. Restricted clientele. For information write "Jean Arnold's" Neptu eHal1, Bahama Beach, Melbourne, Florida Piano Instruction Rodolphe Mathieu, Canadian pi- anist, composer and teacher, has opened a New York studio where he will conduct piano and com- position courses for a limited number of students. 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